Your Guide to Green Computing Terms: Four Organizations You Should Know About

While we're moving on up the green computing terminology, there is still so much to cover. So here are four organizations that are helping to regulate green computing in today's global markets.

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A Few Key Organizations You Should Know About

When it comes to key green computing terms, there are a few organizations all over the globe that are helping to regulate different areas of the computer and component market to help everyone. Here are four that you should know about:

TCO Certification

This is a series of certifications that office equipment has to go through in many European countries. These certifications and regulations are set up and maintained by TCO Development, which is owned by the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees. While these certifications mostly refer to monitors, they also help define some of the highest standards for computer CPU's, keyboards, printers, cell phones, office furniture, and other main electrical office equipment.

Climate Savers Computing Initiative

This group is a non-profit organization that is made up of consumers, businesses, and other conservation organizations that are all trying to reach the same goal: to promote smart technologies that can help to improve power efficiency in computers and at the same time reduce their energy consumption. Some of the larger companies that participate in this organization have signed commitments to the group to make products that meet their specific power-efficiency targets. Other members of the organization, such as larger businesses and companies, commit to purchasing these more efficient products. Right now, the group's main goal is to reduce the energy consumption made by computers by 50%, as well as reduce the global CO2 emissions from all computers by 54 million tons a year by the year 2010. (You can find a more in-depth look at the Climate Savers Computing Initiative here: .)

Green Computing Impact Organization, Inc or (GCIO)

This is another non-profit organization that is dedicated to helping the end users of computers to be more environmentally responsible with their products. Their mission is mostly accomplished by holding educational events, programs, and even special auditing services to help businesses and all users with their green computing areas. The main part of the group is founded around the GCIO Cooperative, which is a community of IT leaders who are concerned about the global effect that our computer resources will have on the environment and they pool their time and resources to helping educate and do what they can to help improve computer products so that they are more green and thus environmentally friendly.

Green Electronics Council

This council offers the EPEAT, the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool, to help consumers buy green computing equipment and systems. The council evaluates different computing components and systems on a specifically set 28-point criteria that they use to measure that product's efficiency and other attributes. The tool has been so successful, that in January of 2007, President George W. Bush issued an Executive Order that requires all of the U.S. Federal agencies to use EPEAT when they purchase any type of new computer system. (A more in-depth look at EPEAT can be found here on Bright Hub at: http://www.brighthub.com/environment/green-computing/articles/7424.aspx.)

The next part of this series will look at Green Grid, the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (or ACPI), hibernation, and dynamic voltage scaling to help you continue on your knowledge journey into green computing.